Re: Wisconsin Recruiting Vol. XXVI: Make him an offer he can't refuse
I agree completely that the stature of UW hockey both on campus and on a national level has eroded in the last 2 decades. It started before Eaves got on campus (the last decade of Barney Rubble where the only above average years were when Heatley was on campus) and I'm not sure anyone short of Scotty Bowman or his ilk could have reversed that trend. We've debated the causes...but to me the number one reason has been the prominence of football and basketball have been elevated DRASTICALLY compared to the historic norm for decades prior to the mid-late 90's. UW hockey was basically the only show in town as far as being a nationally significant in the 70's and 80's and as such had a spotlight on it that was really unchallanged by other sports. Bouncyball and Footie ranged from aweful to horrible when Hockey was king on campus. Unfortunately for hockey, both have been pretty prominent in terms of success for an entire generation and we are seeing the effect in terms of fan support....we lost a generation of fans that might have taken in a few hockey games as students because there was some buzz from success (and no other sports with that buzz distracting) and once seeing a few games became hooked for life.
As to the recruiting...I am concerned for sure. I am also cautionsly optomistic that hopefully we get a couple high end kids falling our way in the coming weeks...especially Cameron Hughes. Again, I think there has been a concious shift in strategy on recruiting kids at a real young age. While you still target the true elite kids at a young age (ie Fabbro who we just had in as a 15 year old for a visit) that every program and the CHL are offering and hoping to land their commitments...there just are not that many like that around and the handful that there are are likely not going to the same school and going to be spread among the dozen top end D1 schools AND the CHL. That caliber of kid you can count on one hand each year that are going to college hockey (and unfortunately there are 2 hand fulls of D1 schools vying for them and some of those kids have a predispossed affinity for other schools whether it be a kid from Minnie loving the rodents or Schmaltz's having family connections to North Dakota or they are Catholic and like ND/BC better, or whatever). Corbin McGuire is the caustionary tale of offering 15 year old kids that are really good players at 15. Cameron Hughes and Sheehy were not kids that were going to get offers from elite level D1 schools at 15 or even 16...but if the Badger somehow can land one or both....pretty sure most every D1 team would love to trade a commit they will sign for them.
I agree completely that the stature of UW hockey both on campus and on a national level has eroded in the last 2 decades. It started before Eaves got on campus (the last decade of Barney Rubble where the only above average years were when Heatley was on campus) and I'm not sure anyone short of Scotty Bowman or his ilk could have reversed that trend. We've debated the causes...but to me the number one reason has been the prominence of football and basketball have been elevated DRASTICALLY compared to the historic norm for decades prior to the mid-late 90's. UW hockey was basically the only show in town as far as being a nationally significant in the 70's and 80's and as such had a spotlight on it that was really unchallanged by other sports. Bouncyball and Footie ranged from aweful to horrible when Hockey was king on campus. Unfortunately for hockey, both have been pretty prominent in terms of success for an entire generation and we are seeing the effect in terms of fan support....we lost a generation of fans that might have taken in a few hockey games as students because there was some buzz from success (and no other sports with that buzz distracting) and once seeing a few games became hooked for life.
As to the recruiting...I am concerned for sure. I am also cautionsly optomistic that hopefully we get a couple high end kids falling our way in the coming weeks...especially Cameron Hughes. Again, I think there has been a concious shift in strategy on recruiting kids at a real young age. While you still target the true elite kids at a young age (ie Fabbro who we just had in as a 15 year old for a visit) that every program and the CHL are offering and hoping to land their commitments...there just are not that many like that around and the handful that there are are likely not going to the same school and going to be spread among the dozen top end D1 schools AND the CHL. That caliber of kid you can count on one hand each year that are going to college hockey (and unfortunately there are 2 hand fulls of D1 schools vying for them and some of those kids have a predispossed affinity for other schools whether it be a kid from Minnie loving the rodents or Schmaltz's having family connections to North Dakota or they are Catholic and like ND/BC better, or whatever). Corbin McGuire is the caustionary tale of offering 15 year old kids that are really good players at 15. Cameron Hughes and Sheehy were not kids that were going to get offers from elite level D1 schools at 15 or even 16...but if the Badger somehow can land one or both....pretty sure most every D1 team would love to trade a commit they will sign for them.
) or maybe not as talented but overall in any 5-year stretch I'd take them against any other Wisconsin HS team. I've also seen Superior come down to Madison and dominate territorial play and SOG but lose to a goalie playing out-of-his-mind, and despite the losses there was no question I think to anyone watching the game who was the better team